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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29115708">Pack</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnieHazel/pseuds/GinnieHazel'>GinnieHazel</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Walking Dead (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Werecreatures, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Canon-Typical Violence, Dubious Consent, Dubious Morality, M/M, Were-Creatures, Werewolves, Zombie Apocalypse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:34:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>12,653</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29115708</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnieHazel/pseuds/GinnieHazel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Built from a conglomeration of prompts on the walking dead kinkmeme.</p>
<p>Daryl and Merle Dixon, brothers, werewolves, and men of dubious morality, come across Glenn trying to survive in the ruins of Atlanta. Over time they find themselves building a pack out of what remains, whether they want to or not.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Daryl Dixon/Glenn Rhee, Merle Dixon/Glenn Rhee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>67</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Dixons on the River</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Daryl can find, make, or do without pretty much anything now that the world has gone to shit. When things started going south on the news, he didn’t give too much of a damn. But things just got worse.</p>
<p>Wolves travel light, and following his brother around meant Daryl was used to hanging onto only a bag of clothes, some tools, and his truck. He skipped between mechanic jobs and plain dumb labour whenever he needed a bit of cash. Enough to keep them both in beer and liqueur for a few more weeks. Keep Merle from just steeling it.</p>
<p>It wasn’t too hard to scrape together all that he owned, tent and bow included, drag Merle out of the shit-hole bar he’d been living in for the last few evenings, and head for the river.</p>
<p>They park up in an industrial estate on the far west side of town. Pretty much everyone has cleared off, either heading into the city or heading out, and they find a parking lot tucked away behind a building promising wholesale beer.</p>
<p>It takes Merle a whole 2 seconds to decide he’s gonna loot it when he sobers up.</p>
<p>They set up camp on a little island, Merle catching some Zs while Daryl shifts and sits guard. He listens with up-pricked ears, snout in the air. There’s the smell of death on the breeze.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Things just keep getting worse over the next few days. No one bothers coming there way, but Daryl still finds himself following the creak that meets up with what he thinks of as their stretch of the river.</p>
<p>Merle followed through with his plan to loot the booze and get shit-faced, and a quick trip to Sweetwater and the national park each day is enough to keep them fed, so there’s no point in leaving. He’s not ashamed to admit they eat more than a few escaped family pets in those first days of chaos.</p>
<p>He sits and watches the road, folding one paw over the other. No one sees him in the dark. Even if they were looking, who cares about one big dog when you’re running for your life.</p>
<p>The choppers are new, but he doesn’t care all too much until the explosions start. The humans scream and cry as a yellow glow lights up the air. That’s when he starts to think this may be bad enough to put even him and Merle in danger.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Daryl takes pride in being a hunter. Merle, though? Merle’s never been one to bother putting work in when he can just take. Never been one to care all too much about the rule of law and the sanctity of other peoples possessions.</p>
<p>With that mind they smash the door off the QuikTrip. Daryl stuffs a bag with jerky, chips, and anything that’ll last for as long as they need it to.</p>
<p>They’re lugging their loot back to the den when Daryl sees one of them for the first time. The dead. The smell that has been filling his lungs for for nigh on a week suddenly grows eye-watering and he turns towards it to see a woman stumbling down the street.</p>
<p>At first he thinks she’s drunk, decided to see out this shit show with a tank-full, till he sees her face. What’s left of her face.</p>
<p>She sees him too. She hisses like something inhuman and stumbles towards him. He wishes he brought his bow, but who thinks of shit like that when they’re only expecting to find people.</p>
<p>Daryl hangs back, turning his side to her out of instinct alone, but Merle’s cocky. He taps the side of his leg with his bat a few times, shoulders loose, and lets out a laugh.</p>
<p>Merle might not be as sober as Daryl thought. Hard to tell when the guy always smells like a bar.</p>
<p>“Hey there, little Missy!”</p>
<p>The woman tilts her head, stumbles over nothing and makes a beeline for his brother. Not speeding up or slowing down, just stumbling.</p>
<p>Merle uses the tip of the wooden bat to prod at her when she reaches him and laughs loud and giddy when she she flops backwards, struggling like a landed fish. He kicks her and stamps on her fingers as she reaches out to grab at his feet.</p>
<p>“Baby brother, you have got to have a try at this.”</p>
<p>“The fuck is wrong with her?”</p>
<p>Merle crouches to have a closer look. “Nothing behind the eyes.” He takes a step back and then comes back in with a kick to the woman's face. She doesn’t even seem to feel it, just reaching for the foot that did it, gaping mouth dripping strings of dark blood and chunks of white teeth.</p>
<p>“This is too fucked up, man.” He wants to get away from it. Every canine instinct, and damn near all his human ones are telling him to get the shit away from whatever that thing is.</p>
<p>“You scared?” That fucking smirk, it’s what always gets him to do shit he doesn’t want to do.</p>
<p>“Fuck no. Just don’t wanna get too close to whatever makes someone like that. Think it’s some kinda plague?”</p>
<p>Merle has put his foot on the ladies neck. It seems to squish like some old jack-o-lantern left out on a porch too long as he presses down.</p>
<p>“Skinners got themselves fucked up, that’s their problem.” Merle laughs as he passes him. “We gonna make the best of this? They cleared out the town that means easy pickings.”</p>
<p>Daryl walks backwards behind his brother, not wanting to take his eyes away from the whatever the fuck it is still dragging itself along. “We gonna get out after? I ain’t going down for looting.”</p>
<p>“Have I ever steered you wrong?” Merle doesn’t bother waiting for an answer. “Naw, we drive in, take a looksy, nab what we want and gas up, then vamoose.”</p>
<p>Daryl may be pretty sure this is all going to end up shit creak, but since when has he ever not followed his brother?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Weird things on the TV</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm going to be trying to add at least a chapter a week, since work is so quiet at the moment, but no promises.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Glen knows he should have left. He should have left when they were getting everyone out. He should have left when they decided to bomb the city. He just couldn’t.</p>
<p>He’s been delivering pizza and trying to get by for the last two years, learning every shortcut and detour in Atlanta. It’s his home. It’s the place he knows.</p>
<p>It isn’t that place any more.</p>
<p>When it first appeared on the news, just weird things happening far away, he thought it sounded like something from a computer game. He just shrugged his shoulders and put it to the back of his mind.</p>
<p>When it first hit in Georgia he was scared. Really scared. But he only got payed if he showed up to work and he knew that even the end of the world wouldn’t be enough of an excuse for the managers, so some people going nuts on the other side of the city definitely wouldn’t cut it.</p>
<p>When he finally figured out that it actually was the end of the world? It was when he was trying to find the right part of White Oak Avenue and realized that three different households were packing their trucks and cars with what looked like everything they owned.</p>
<p>He dropped off three thick crust in the cul-de-sac and figured it was definitely time to play hooky for the rest of his shift and hunker down where he could just watch it all play out on the news. If it really looked like he had to get out it would be a whole lot easier on the delivery motorbike then trying to hitch a lift. If everyone managed to plug up the roads it might even end up being faster to walk.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He ends up curled up in front of the TV as it all goes down. It looks like the refugee center is a bust. It just all gets too bad too fast and people are scrambling out of the city likes rats off a boat.</p>
<p>When he stops getting a TV signal he just draws the curtains, curls up on the couch, and stares out into nothing. And he thinks.</p>
<p>He doesn’t even know anyone in Atlanta. Not well enough to call at a time like this, anyway. The boss is an asshole and he never got a chance to hang out with the kitchen staff. He’s on his own.</p>
<p>He gets up and looks in the fridge.</p>
<p>There’s some old pizza from yesterday that he’d been planning to throw away, and not a whole lot else. Ketchup and two beers left over from a six pack he hasn’t gotten around to finishing. The cabinets aren’t too much better.</p>
<p>He stumbles to the cupboard in the hallway and picks up the bat he’s kept from when he used to play. It feels flimsy in his hands, but it’s all he has.</p>
<p>He goes back to the sofa and stares at the blank TV.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. An interesting meeting</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Daryl and his brother move Merle’s hog into the back of the truck and fill up most of the space left with messy piles of their stuff, plus a good amount of food from the stores they’ve been living off for the last week. Anything worth keeping gets dumped inside, leaving only a small gap at the front in case one of them needs to play tank gunner.</p>
<p>They’d have more room if one of them went on the bike, but they aren’t going into danger without one of them furred up.</p>
<p>Merle strips down right in the street, not even bothering with the tiny amount of modesty he usually drags up, and sniffs the road before loping along towards the city.</p>
<p>Daryl follows him in the truck, using his eyes instead of his weaker sense of smell, sealed up in the cab as he is. If he’s a bit jealous it’s only because he wants so hard to bear his teeth at this strange new world.</p>
<p>They come across two or three at a time while they rock up the 70 and Merle takes a sick amount of pleasure ripping them up with his teeth. It isn’t till they start to get near to the I20 that his ears flip back for a few moments and his hackles rise.</p>
<p>Daryl slows to a crawl. He can’t see around the corner and can only smell the all pervading scent of dead but not dead.</p>
<p>Merle fakes a run back, towards the median, then lowers his head and grows. He sprints a few dozen feet towards the truck and Daryl finally sees what has him spooked.</p>
<p>There has to be 40 of them, all clumped together giving out that groaning hiss that’s really starting to get on Daryl’s nerves. He pats the side of the cab to get Merle’s attention.</p>
<p>“Hop in. We’ll drive through them. Take too long, otherwise.”</p>
<p>The older wolf keeps an eye on the stumbling dead as he comes back then leaps up onto the back of the truck with their stuff, front pays resting on their rolled up tent.</p>
<p>Daryl just wants to get out of there now. Back to the wilderness that feels more like home than Atlanta ever could. Merle would never let him live it down if he ran off with his tail between his legs, though.</p>
<p>He guns the motor to get them all coming directly for him and watches at they start to work their way back together. He wants to hit as many as he can if he’s going to do this at all. Gotta make it count.</p>
<p>The closest is a couple of yards away when he goes for it, not getting to anything faster than a crawl and watching them fall under the front end, letting the wheels and the crush do the work. The sickening crunching sound of people, real honest to shit people, going under the wheels and colliding with the hood make him wince. That’s going to be hell to clean off the undercarriage if he needs to fix something.</p>
<p>The most fucked up thing is looking back afterward and realizing that the fuckers haven’t stopped moving. They’re clumps of flesh in some places, bones shattered and bodies flattened, but wherever he can see an intact head it’s watching him, snapping and gasping.</p>
<p>He’s so shuck up he hits the rise between the two sides and has to swerve to stay in his lane.</p>
<p>Does it even matter? He hasn’t seen another car moving on the road.</p>
<p>There’s maybe a dozen left stumbling around that got pushed to the sides. Merle leaps up over the cab and down the hood, leaving bloody footprints on the road. He starts crippling them, moving more cautiously this time and taking out legs before going for the kill.</p>
<p>His brother drags one of them along with him back towards the city, like he’s pulling on a toy, until the arm pops out of it’s socket and the flesh gives way with a sucking squelch.</p>
<p>“Merle! Let’s just raid the stuff down here and hall ass. There’s nothing out that way we need!”</p>
<p>The large wolf huffs. He stands still for a moment or two and then heads back down the road making a beeline for the Citgo. Daryl glances back to the bigger road and when he looks back Merle is buck ass naked and human as he ever is.</p>
<p>Daryl sighs and turns the truck round, pulling up next to where Merle is standing by the riser pipe. It’s not the first time they’ve pulled gas from the underground tanks, just wait till it’s closed and use the same small pump as on some schmuck’s car, but it is the first time they’ve done it all out in the open like this.</p>
<p>The smell of gas creeping all up in the air, popping up out of the hole like some beast has let rip, is probably the only reason Daryl smells it before Merle. It’s a person. Male and sweating in the Georgia heat and so fucking human. He didn’t realize how used to the smell he is until it became a rare part to the city.</p>
<p>He passes where Merle is still setting up the pump, the other man becoming alert at his stalking stance, and wishes not for the first time he didn’t need to waste time stripping off before changing. It’s more concentration than he wants to spare right now and he might need a chance to talk to this person, whoever they are, if he wants to figure them out.</p>
<p>Merle takes the other track and shifts. Talking is one thing, but it’s easier to kill as a wolf.</p>
<p>They split slightly, heading through the layer of industrial buildings into the woods at different angles so that they can get on either side of the man and surround him as well as they can.</p>
<p>Their target is also trying to be quiet, but he can still hear the sound of dry grass crumpling underfoot, the crunch of broken glass, and the heavy breathing that they’re trying to hold back.</p>
<p>When he finally sees the human, he realises they’re as much kid as man. Late teens to early twenties. Just a yearling.</p>
<p>The kid’s heart is rabbit fast and he flinches at every gust of wind or bird call. So shook up that every little thing sends out a thick scent of terror.</p>
<p>Daryl holds back and freezes, crouched behind a neighbors fence and peeking through a knot hole, so he can get a good proper look without being made. The boys got the flat face of an Asian, dressed like he’s going to play in a little league game, complete with bat, and it’s all Daryl can do not to laugh out loud. Kid just looks soft. Soft like city fuckers, but also girl soft, and Daryl feels a throb of want made all the stronger by the fact that he hasn’t gotten laid in months. Merle may be a poon hound, but he’s always had a knack for driving off every decent lay in a ten mile radius that don’t ask for cash upfront.</p>
<p>And fuck, Merle is down wind.</p>
<p>He gives a glance to his brother and can almost see the smirk on his furry face where he’s slinking about in the tree line.</p>
<p>The Asian boy is trying to sneak round the back of someone’s house now, and he can’t see what Daryl can smell, even with a human face. The whimper the kid lets out has Daryl taking a step forward, but he just watches the kid flinch back than go running round the other side and press his back against the stucco, closing his eyes like a little kid trying to tell himself the monsters aren’t real.</p>
<p>Daryl should have noticed there ain’t no blood on that bat.</p>
<p>He glances round the corner and watches the walker stumble down the road, heading in the other direction, and then waits for at least a minute before taking a shaking step out of the shade of the building. He’s so worked up and focused that he’s only got his eyes out for walkers and misses Daryl slinking behind some old rust bucket.</p>
<p>Boy looks both ways before crossing the street, heading for a one story with a bike in the weeds. He takes off his thin jacket and holds it over the tiny window in the front door and and even then it takes him a few seconds to get together the courage to give it a blow with the handle of the bat. It smashes on impact and he takes the time to knock the shards out.</p>
<p>When the kid has his hand through elbow deep trying to reach down for the door handle Daryl steps forward into the open. It doesn’t look like his arm is quite long enough.</p>
<p>“Just go through the front window, dumbass.”</p>
<p>The kid jumps and spins to face him, whacking his elbow on the window rim, and looks like an animal caught in a trap.</p>
<p>“I just… I…”</p>
<p>His eyes are darting around, trying to see if Daryl is alone, but Merle is still crouched low in the trees, slipping round so he can get behind the house the kid’s caught in like a cookie jar.</p>
<p>If Daryl can get the kid to come forward than this’ll be nice and easy.</p>
<p>“Hey, whatever, it’s not my house.”</p>
<p>The kid still has his bat raised. “Do you know what’s going on? Is it everywhere?”</p>
<p>Daryl flashes his best shy smile. It doesn’t always work with the biker gear, but it’s his best bet for getting the kid going.</p>
<p>“Don’t know a fucking thing. I wasn’t here when it started. Probably know less than you.”</p>
<p>The kid looks off over Daryl’s shoulder towards the center of the city, contemplative, before taking a few steps forward. He’s the helpful type.</p>
<p>“I only noticed something about a week ago. It sounded nuts. They were talking about rabies or something on the news.”</p>
<p>Daryl turns side on and rubs his neck, eyes downcast, acting casual and harmless. He can see Merle now at the corner of the house, waiting for his moment. “This shit is fucked up.”</p>
<p>The kid comes closer, almost like he’s going to try and comfort Daryl, and it’s all Merle needs to run up behind the kid and wrap two powerful arms around his body, one hand slapped over his mouth.</p>
<p>It doesn’t take much of Merle’s strength to keep a grip on the kid, and it’s only then Daryl starts to wonder if they might have made a better impression if his brother put his underpants back on.</p>
<p>No time to think about that now, though. He grabs the red cloth from is back pocket that he uses to clean his hands and starts spinning it into a strip. The kid doesn’t seem like all that much of a threat now, but better to tie up his hands and keep things easy.</p>
<p>They push him forward to the ground, Merle sitting on his legs and planting a restraining hand between his shoulder blades while Daryl binds his wrists.</p>
<p>Once that’s done they each grab an arm and lift the kid clean up off the ground. He’d expected to have to gag the kid as well, but to his surprise he’s just letting out these little whimpers when they pull him one way or another.</p>
<p>It makes sense, though. Pushing down the instinct to cry for help is probably the reason the kid is still alive. Daryl can just imagine how all the scream queens got ate up, waiting for help that ain’t coming.</p>
<p>They half walk, half drag him back to the truck and sit him down on the tarmac near the back tire. Merle quickly dispatches the two geeks that have wandered into the little parking lot and gets back to pumping the gas out of the ground. They’ve probably been here too long as it is.</p>
<p>Daryl grabs up the kids backpack and searches through it. He’s got a couple of cans of vegetables, one jar of hot dogs, and not a lot else.</p>
<p>“You can keep it.”</p>
<p>Daryl looks up at the kid. He looks a bit scared, but also confused.</p>
<p>“Seriously man, it’s not worth all this. I can get more.”</p>
<p>Daryl dumps the pack between them and crouches on his heals. “That’s what you’ve been doing then? Just breaking into houses for stuff?”</p>
<p>The kid glances over to his side where Merle is still busy draining the underground tank. “Yes?”</p>
<p>“You lived round here?”</p>
<p>“Kinda? I mean, I’m further into the city but I figured houses out here wouldn’t have been broken into. I’ve hit a few places in the city, but everyone already went through the good shops when the panic started and it’s not worth it for the amount of stuff I can carry.”</p>
<p>“You with others?”</p>
<p>Daryl can see it in the kids eyes when he considers lying, then drops it as a lost cause.<br/>“No.”</p>
<p>Merle is pulling the hose out of the ground now and it’s time to make a decision. If they take the kid no one will ever know.</p>
<p>Daryl sits cross-legged on the ground, leaning back on one arm a foot from the kid, and he’s going to have to stop calling him that, even in his head. </p>
<p>“What’s your name then?”</p>
<p>“Glenn?”</p>
<p>He says it like it’s a question, and Daryl wants to keep that. Wants the kid to keep looking at him like what he thinks makes all the difference.</p>
<p>Daryl worries his lip, staring into the sky and watching the clouds move lazily past.</p>
<p>“You gonna just stick here? Raid houses till they run out of stuff?”</p>
<p>Glenn sits up a bit straiter. “I guess I was waiting for the army or something.” He cringes at Daryl’s snort. “I haven’t really been planning that far ahead. I came out ‘cause the food ran out.”</p>
<p>“Shit, kid, that ain’t gonna last.” He runs a hand through his short hair, trying to clear away the feeling of sweat. “We gonna head out further. Dixon’s always come out good. Can deal with the woods.”</p>
<p>“And just wait to be found?”</p>
<p>“Don’t think there’s anyone left to do the findin’.”</p>
<p>Daryl doesn’t look at the kid, but he can hear him draw his feet up and run his fingers over the ground. Let the kid think it through.</p>
<p>“Do you think I could come?”</p>
<p>There it is. Daryl’s kind of terrible at people, but even he can see that this kid will do anything to not be alone anymore. He gives the younger man a considering look.</p>
<p>“You gonna work for it? We ain’t no taxi.”</p>
<p>“Well, I can keep going on supply runs? I’m not so good at fighting but I’m fast.”</p>
<p>“You think we can’t get our own canned veggies, kid? Naw, you think you can figure out how to keep house and shit? Clean up? Cooking ain’t too hard with a fire, but I ain’t washing Merle’s pants and he won’t do more than jump in the river.”</p>
<p>“That’s what you want? A drudge?”</p>
<p>“Hey, take it or leave it. You stay here, you’re pretty much dead unless someone else comes along. You come with us, you’re ours. You do what we tell you to do and we keep you.”</p>
<p>The kid gulps. “You haven’t even told me your name.”</p>
<p>“Daryl, if that makes any difference.”</p>
<p>Glenn closes his eyes and leans his head against his own up bent knees. He sighs and frowns, then looks back at Daryl again.</p>
<p>“I can do that.” His eyebrows are raised up in a little puppy dog look, and it makes Daryl want to lick him, bite him. Claim him. “But can I ask you one thing first?”</p>
<p>“Shoot.”</p>
<p>“Why is your brother naked?”</p>
<p>“See something you like?” Merle dumps the fuel pump in the back of the truck with a thunk, then kneels down, making no effort to hide anything, and grabs Glenn by the chin.</p>
<p>“That’s a cock sucking mouth.” He runs his thumb along Glenn’s bottom lip. “I call first dibs.”</p>
<p>“Whatever. We untying him?”</p>
<p>Merle slaps Glenn’s face gently. “What ya say, kid? You gonna do anything stupid if we let you up?”</p>
<p>“No.” He’s glancing between them like he’s trying to keep both in sight.</p>
<p>“Good enough for me. Stick him in the truck with the other loot, we’ll figure out where we’re going next.”</p>
<p>Daryl pulls Glenn up and spins him round so he’s facing away, then unties his hands. He watches as Glenn rubs his wrists and gives them both a final look before getting into the passenger side of the cab.</p>
<p>“We splitting then?”</p>
<p>Merle licks the corner of his mouth. “If everything is fucked all over we might as well find somewhere long term. Water and game. Could do with a den that we can stock up with food.”</p>
<p>“Figured that. Could fucking do with a few more arrows as well. If I gotta yank them out of the geeks head every time it’s going to slow me down. Means we can’t leave quick.”</p>
<p>Merle heads over to the cab and grabs their map out of the glove compartment. He opens it up on the seat, shoving the kid into the middle. “If we’re heading out then we can just get going to Top Tier, see if there’s still any gear, and then loose ourselves in the woods as long as we need to. It’s on one of the bigger roads but they might have some stuff left. Should be good hunting near Tallapoosa.”</p>
<p>“Beats just running in circles. You riding in the truck?”</p>
<p>“For now, yeah. Don’t want our new friend to be getting lonely, now do we?”</p>
<p>“Well put some fucking pants on first. Don’t want your naked ass on my seats.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I found it really hard to get Daryl's voice right through this, and I hope I did. I'm a female British geek so it's a bit out of my wheelhouse.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Fetch</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This was supposed to be up last Sunday, but I had to rewrite it from Glenn's perspective and then getting Merle right was a nightmare. It gained 1500 words in the process.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>What on earth has Glenn gotten himself into?</p>
<p>It’s sitting in the front seat of a dirty, worn truck while one scary redneck gets into the drivers seat and the other pulls on a leather biker jacket and pair of loose jeans held together as much by dirt as by any strength in the fabric that he really starts to realize how much he’s taking his life in his hands. Or putting it in their hands, which is even more terrifying.</p>
<p>And it’s somehow his best option at the moment.</p>
<p>He’s survived so far staying quiet and fast, but that can only last for so long. He’s going to get himself trapped if he doesn’t have back up, someone that he can rely on, and he hasn’t slept properly in days. Not since they blew up the city.</p>
<p>He’s broken out of his revere when the older man gets in beside him, sandwiching him in and closing the door. He’s got a long rifle propped between his legs and lets one hand drop down to sit on Glenn’s leg.</p>
<p>The guy, he’s got to be at least 50 and he looks like he’s spent most of his life fighting, spots Glenn’s look and gives him a dirty grin, squeezing his leg.</p>
<p>It looks like he’s really going to be finding out what he’s willing to do to survive.</p>
<p>“It’s good you’re a skinny little thing, Chinaman. Wouldn’t have room for another a’ Daryl’s fat ass.”</p>
<p>“My fat ass? Shit.” Daryl spits out the window and turns the key.</p>
<p>They go north. Maybe because it’s the faster way but maybe just because that’s the way traffic used to flow. He only knows which way they’re heading out from where Merle pointed on the map.</p>
<p>By the time they’ve passed under the bridge and turned onto the 139 the man in the passenger seat seems to be getting bored. Or horny. Or maybe even both. Either way he’s staring at Glenn like he’s food that’s almost done and he’s moved his hand up to trace over his jaw and the side of his neck.</p>
<p>“How old’r you, Chink?”</p>
<p>He swallows down the retort and lowers his eyes to his lap, only glancing up every now and again. “I’m twenty-two.”</p>
<p>“Fuck kid, old enough to be your daddy.” He runs strong fingers through the short hair just above Glenn’s ear and grins when he curls in on himself just a little. “You like that, Chinaman? Wanna call me daddy?”</p>
<p>If he was in a movie he’d say something cleaver to break the tension, something cool and funny, but he can’t even bring up words. He just kind of freezes there waiting for something to happen.</p>
<p>He jolts out of it when Merle gives him a gentle slap to the back of the head and laughs.</p>
<p>“Shit, kid. You ran out’a English or something? Jeez, looking at me like I’m gonna cut you up. Need to let loose before something snaps.”</p>
<p>He lets his eyes sweep over the trucks windows, trying to find something to change the subject. They’re turning into a relatively quiet road through a suburban neighborhood. The kind of place he’d do deliveries to tired parents after a long day of work.</p>
<p>“Do you think there’s anybody else left out here?”</p>
<p>Older redneck does his own examination of the area. “Gotta be. A whole load more little rabbits like you hiding out in their holes waiting for the world to go back to how it was. Give it a month, they’ll be moved out or walking around like this fucker.”</p>
<p>Merle opens the door while they’re trundling along to give a walker with a bedraggled suit a whack, and laughs as he crawls along behind them.</p>
<p>That seems to cheer Merle up enough that he settles back to watch the world go by, jiggling his leg a little against where it leans against Glenn’s.</p>
<p>There weren’t too many cars along this route before and there’s only one or two now, either bumped into each other or left at the side of the road. He tries not to think too hard about the owners.</p>
<p>The thing that really feels weird is the silence. There’s the rumble of the truck and the rustle of wind in the bushes, but no car radio, no music outside. He misses the rush of the other cars coming along beside.</p>
<p>It stays that way until they start to get closer to the bigger roads again. There’s more walkers every turning they pass, back towards the world of corrugated blocks and industrial sheds.</p>
<p>When they rumble past an inconsequential little clump of trees, all spread out in a row to hide the sight and noise of what lies beyond, and get their first sight of the dollar General, it’s like they’ve found were all the  locals have gone.</p>
<p>The lot’s all encircled in one long chain link fence, rattling now with the faces pressed up against it, and more of the dead are stumbling towards the tasty morsels in front of them.</p>
<p>The parking lot is still about half full and what windows the stark grey buildings do have are smashed in. There’s food and what looks like a wide screen TV scattered around on the ground, but no one is alive enough to care about that anymore.</p>
<p>The lot is segmented into different caged off sections, each for a different company, like the chambers of a misshapen concrete heart, and there has to be at least a hundred walkers stumbling like laconic blood cells between the vehicles.</p>
<p>And they’re all looking towards them. Towards the rumbling motor and the only sign of life in a world of the dead.</p>
<p>“They all fucking clumped up?” Daryl leans out of the window to have a look.</p>
<p>Glenn peaks around him for his own view. “Maybe a burglar alarm went off? Or they just clump?” It’s interesting in it’s own way, and he can’t say it won’t haunt him tonight when he’s safe and trying to drift off, but he doesn’t quite get why Daryl has drawn to a stop. He’d always just called places like this a loss and moved on to somewhere safer.</p>
<p>“Maybe we can have some fun with this?” Merle asks with a grin that makes Glenn’s stomach drop. He opens the door and swings out to hang from the door frame, head high to have a better look.</p>
<p>“Merle, what the fuck are you doing?”</p>
<p>“Don’t get your panties in a twist, baby brother! Just want to see what the chink is capable of.”</p>
<p>Merle still has one hand holding his rifle, so when he lets go of the truck and grabs a handful of Glenn’s jacket they’re both pulled out by gravity, Merle landing on one foot as if he’s just stepped back and Glenn barely managing to get his own feet under him before he lands on his face, colliding with Merle’s solid chest in the process.</p>
<p>“What? No!” Glenn twists, trying to get the hand twisted in the back of his top, pulling the neck uncomfortably tight, to loose it’s grip.</p>
<p>“Calm yourself down, China.” The next thing he knows, Merle is propping his gun up and pulling a lug wrench out from under the seat. He pushes it into his chest and Glenn grabs hold through instinct. He’s shoved round the front of the truck and towards the increasing groans of the ghouls, but can’t bring himself to do more than turn to try to find any kind of way out of this. He locks eyes with Daryl, but he’s obviously not in control of this situation either.</p>
<p>“Merle, you fucker! Just get back in the damn truck, both of you. This is dumb.”</p>
<p>“I ain’t hauling no dead weight all over the end of the world, you got that? You want to live, kid? Show me how much.”</p>
<p>“You can’t be serious?” Glenn just stands frozen. “This is insane!”</p>
<p>“Serious as a bullet wound, chink. You get over there and get yourself a taste for it. Gotta happen some time.”</p>
<p>Glenn can’t believe he’s actually considering going through with it, but as much as he hates to admit it, the racist is right. He’s happily mown through monsters on his computer screen, he knows his survival is reliant on getting over this squeamishness, but he still recoils from their ragged faces.</p>
<p>They’re not too far from the main entrance to the warren of wire mesh, about thirty yards from where they’re parked, and a trickle of geeks are finding their way through it. As Glenn squares up and lifts the cold metal of the wrench over his shoulder he can hear Daryl getting out the truck and scrounging in the back for something.</p>
<p>The guy’s got a frickin’ crossbow when he looks round, and he doesn’t know if it’s to help or just to make sure the two brothers don’t get eaten, but it gives him a little confidence at least.</p>
<p>Glenn takes a few faltering steps towards the leader of the group heading for him and adjusts his grip nervously before taking a tentative swing. It isn’t like hitting a ball, or like when he’d get bored as a kid and smack a tree. There’s a soft thud, a slight give, and it drops to the ground at his feet. He almost trips and stumbles backwards when it starts trying to go for the ankles.</p>
<p>“Woo! That’s it!” Merle is cheering like he’s in a sports bar. “Smash it’s fucking brains in!”</p>
<p>Glenn brings the end down like an axe into the side of her upturned face and it crumples, but when he goes to pull the weapon back the bulbous end seems to catch on something inside. He has to yank back, feeling cold splatter on his hands, and flinches when the next ghoul, one that he didn’t even see coming he was so focused on the first, stumbles over the ladies legs and takes a falling leap towards him.</p>
<p>He staggers away from it’s grasping clutch and darts round to the side, checking he’s not going to get caught off guard by another, then looks back to where Merle is grinning, his head cocked to one side and relaxed in a way Glenn doesn’t think he’ll ever be again.</p>
<p>“Go on, kid. We ain’t leaving here till you’ve got a pile of those things all lined up.”</p>
<p>He spins the wrench in his hands a couple of times, trying to find a way to hold the now warm metal that doesn’t feel wrong, and settles with striking down with the elbow. He turns back towards the shambling creatures. “You’re a psycho, you know that?”</p>
<p>That was the wrong thing to say. Or maybe it’s just coming from the wrong person.</p>
<p>“You know what? I don’t think you’re really being appreciative.” The change in Merle’s tone from playful to downright cold leaves Glenn’s spine rigid even as he stoves in the skull of another walker.</p>
<p>“We let you stick with us, we let you ride up front when the real place for animals is in the back, and then you have the nerve to talk back to me like we ain’t done nothing.”</p>
<p>Glenn really wishes he could keep the redneck in his sight, not turn his back on the man for a moment, but it’s not possible when the dead keep coming for him. Every step away from that rifle is one more towards the walkers, and he finds himself skittering between the two, taking down walkers when they get too close.</p>
<p>“Tell you what, baby brother, you stick one of them arrows in that there wall back there. We’re going to make this bitch play fetch.”</p>
<p>“Merle, that’s fucked up.” Daryl protests, but there’s no real weight behind it. They both know this isn’t going to end that easily.</p>
<p>“I said shoot the fucking wall, Daryl. And chink? You don’t go get it back, you think of running off, I’m going to stick a bullet right between your eyes.”</p>
<p>“Fine!” He says it with as much a sigh as a yell. “You know what fine, whatever.” If this makes it end, if this shuts Merle up at least for a couple of days, he can do it. Maybe it’s the dumbest idea he’s ever had, but he’s tired. He just wants to rest without hearing the hissing of the dead whenever he closes his eyes. But he wants something else as well.</p>
<p>“I’ll do it, but if I do you stop calling me chink, or Chinaman, or Gook, or whatever. My name is Glenn.”</p>
<p>Merle leans back on the side of the truck, effortlessly relaxed like he wasn’t spitting with rage just a moment before. “I’m not making any promises, Riceball.” He looks up to where Daryl is standing and jerks his head. “Stick it in the side of that body shop. No need to be making it easy.”</p>
<p>Glenn’s no where near an expert when it comes to weapons of any sort, but the building is about 100 yards away and he barely feels the tickling of a light breeze cool the layer of sweat he’s worked up swinging his own improvised bludgeon. That and the fact that Daryl is basically shooting at the broad side of a barn leave him expecting the other man to get the shot off faster.</p>
<p>It lands about a foot from the corner closest to them, almost perfectly shoulder hight, and exactly where he would have put it if he’d had the choice. Looks like he might have an ally in surviving this.</p>
<p>And he’s going to need any help he can find, because this is exactly the kind of situation he doesn’t like to get himself into. There’s no hiding and no going unnoticed when there’s this many geeks around.</p>
<p>Getting in won’t be impossible. The walkers area all spread out at the moment, scattered along the fence like sand in a door frame, but once they start moving, once he’s moving through them, they’re all going to converge. After that it really doesn’t matter how slow they’re going, because one catches hold and it’s enough to slow you down and get you caught by the rest.</p>
<p>Walkers are still trickling through the break in the fence, over the strip of paved road like a bridge through long grass, and he takes them out quickly, letting his body do the work and keeping his mind on his route. The gate leads into one small area to his right, providing the slowly diminishing population of geeks, and the direction he needs to head in is sectioned off by another fence that doglegs from the perimeter on his left.</p>
<p>He gives himself a few moments at the corner of that fence, taking out the smaller population that come for him one at a time, surging forward and jumping back to keep distance between him and them, and watching the ones in the next section as they follow him with their eyes and start heading his way. Behind them there’s a huge general store, level to the road, and then all the way at the other end of that is his building with the arrow.</p>
<p>He waits for the dead to gather along that section of the fence, squeezing each other against the chain link and reaching out towards him, before he looks back at what feels like the only other warm bodies in Atlanta and deciding he has to move.</p>
<p>He slips through the car sized gap into the next area and then skirts along towards the shade the building casts in the early afternoon sun. He’s plunged into the relative cool and lets himself looks back into the blinding light as the dead shuffle towards him in a curving line, pin-balling of parked cars shimmering in the sun.</p>
<p>He skims along the featureless metal wall, thankful for the lack of doors and windows that give him a side of safety, and doesn’t think about the corner till someone staggers around it and he has to come to a screeching halt. No time to stop and think, he bounces off at 90 degrees with a shove and skirts the reaching hands, only just dodging the stragglers from the fence that have rounded towards him. He sprints to the body shop, smashing heads with wild abandon now that he’s working off fear and adrenalin.</p>
<p>He’s being slowed down by the cars and they’re getting closer. He smacks into the body shop at full speed and wraps both hands round the arrow shaft to yank it free, but that holds him in place for too long, and one of the dead is barely a foot from him when a shot rings out.</p>
<p>Glenn ducks away from the spray of dark mist that plumes out of it’s head. He can see both of the other men standing on the back of the truck now, weapons aimed his way.</p>
<p>“You give a shit now?” Daryl’s voice is high pitched and tight, and it draws out a laugh from the other.</p>
<p>“I’m teaching the chink, baby brother. Can’t learn nothing if he’s dead, now can he.”</p>
<p>Nuts they may be, but he’s still desperate to get back to them. The gun shot has drawn off some, but not enough, and the crowd that are left have filled the spaces between the cars, blocking off his exit unless he’s willing to take on three or four at once.</p>
<p>Two more sink to the ground where Merle is trying to make him a hole. It’s not working. There’s just too many, too close.</p>
<p>Glenn slips the arrow down through his belt to free his hands and changes tact, jogging to look round the back wall of the main building. He feels his heart sink even more.</p>
<p>The space that side of the shop is just more parking, more retail buildings. A sea of cars and smashed shop windows and walkers. So many walkers that have heard the gunshots and seen him and now they’re all heading straight here where he’s trapped like a rat, scratching at maze walls trying to claw his way out.</p>
<p>He looks behind him to the back of the body shop and the perimeter fence.</p>
<p>Well, fuck.</p>
<p>He’s back to the wire mesh in moments and twining his fingers between the gaps. Some kind soul, probably someone who worked there, has parked their gleaming red truck nose to the building in one of the outside parking spaces and he’s up on the back board and bounding along the bed with seconds to spare. Fingers grasp for him over the sides, but he’s on the cab and placing one leg over the now knee high wire before he really thinks about how on earth he’s going to get to the ground on the other side.</p>
<p>With a grunt, he swings his weight over the top, hanging from his hands and one knee still hooked over the top and surveys the ground under him. It’s grass and dirt, not soft but not terrible, and he draws his calf over the metal fence frame, feeling the wobble that his hands feed into the structure.</p>
<p>He’s so caught up with avoiding the walkers on one side of the fence that he doesn’t notice one coming up behind him until it groans. He flinches, flailing away and disconnecting from the wire with a pinging rattle.</p>
<p>The ground comes up to meet him fast and he lands with a whumph on his side but any pain doesn’t register as he crawls backwards away from the creature. He manages to get his feet under him on the second try and stumbles trying to get space, bringing down the wrench one last time and collapsing to his knees when the walker falls.</p>
<p>He’s gasping for breath, hands shaking and twitching, and he feels a laugh rattle through him. Just one gets free before he stops him self. Where there’s one walker there’ll be others, and he just wants to get out of here.</p>
<p>He leavers himself up, one hand in the dirt, and starts jogging back towards the road. The arrow slips and he pulls it out again, and when he bursts out and sees the Dixon’s he doesn’t think he’s ever been so happy to see other people. He lifts the thin rod and hollers with joy.</p>
<p>They may be rednecks and rough and quite frankly a little bit terrifying, but they’re alive.</p>
<p>Daryl waves him back towards them, and he glances up around him to find out they aren’t alone. Either the gunshot or just the noise of worked up walkers has drawn in others and he’s quite ready to be gone from here.</p>
<p>He puts on a last spurt of speed.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Weirdo with a chicken</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I've used a new character here that's based on one from another TV series. He's too derivative to call an original character but too different to simply be the one I copied, so I'm not sure how to tag him.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The kid stumbles towards them at a tired jog and then thumps into the truck, letting it take some of his weight.</p>
<p>“Are we done?”</p>
<p>Merle takes the arrow from his outstretched hand and taps the kid on the forehead. “Get in then.”</p>
<p>Glenn takes his place in the cab and Merle hops up over the side of the truck bed to lean his rifle on the top, using it as a rest and blowing some poor fuckers head to smithereens.</p>
<p>“We actually going to get some fucking miles behind us, then?” Daryl gets back behind the wheel. He turns on the engine and gets going towards the crossing to join the number 6, swerving slightly to line up two shamblers who’ve been slowly walking towards them and letting them disappear under the vehicle.</p>
<p>“Don’t get your panties in a twist! We we’re just having a little fun, weren’t we, Glenn?” Merle reaches through the window and pats the kid on the shoulder.</p>
<p>“Are we going down the main road?” Glenn picks up the map and folds it to show their location. “We’re going to Douglasville, right?”</p>
<p>Daryl pulls the truck to a rolling stop at the junction to stare in awe at the horrific pileup that blocks the road.</p>
<p>“Well fuck,” Merle laughs from above them, “Looks like we ain’t going that way after all.”</p>
<p>Daryl can see people still moving in the cars, but it’s only the juddering grasping of the dead. He starts edging his way around a box truck that looks to have rear-ended something already gone. It’s vomited coolant and oil onto the street; won’t be moving in a hurry.</p>
<p>“Lemmy look at the map, kid. Can we get out the other side?” Merle snatches it and holds it away from his face, trying to focus on the tiny lines.</p>
<p>“If the roads aren’t messed up like that one we can get through,” he answers and then roles his eyes at the dubious look he’s getting from the back. “If we follow this road and then head towards the quarry then we can go over the bridge across the freeway. I know my way around here, I just don’t usually go out too far.”</p>
<p>Glenn turns back to where Daryl is watching the exchange, mostly just happy that they’re getting on with shit now. “Turn left every time you come to a T-junction and take the right when you come to the car wash. It’s not a very straight route, but it’ll get us there.”</p>
<p>“Rest of the straight routs probably look like that one back there. You don’t look like you like it straight though Glenn.”</p>
<p>The Asian just sighs and closes his eyes. “Then how come I’m not the one talking about it all the time?”</p>
<p>Daryl carries on down the road as they bicker, through the other side of the industrial area and out into more houses. He’s just passing his second damn church in less than 500 foot when they hit a bend in the road and the trees and dirt on the sides dip away. Burnished metal crash barriers spring up to follow the lines and black and yellow arrows tell them not to go rocketing off into the tiny river winding it's way through the dike.</p>
<p>That ain't all that interesting, ‘part from the sleek black SUV left right across the road, nose to one barrier and trunk to the other, blocking off the route to anything ’cept a tank.</p>
<p>"Who the fuck does that when they're leaving the city?"</p>
<p>Glenn shrugs and opens his door. "Someone who doesn't want to be followed? I don't think it really matters."</p>
<p>He swears again to himself, but opens his own door. The road behind them is no good, and it's only one car.</p>
<p>Merle doesn't make a move to get down from his perch leaning over the top of the cab. "You two get on with shifting it, then. I'll keep watch, make sure you don't get your asses all nibbled."</p>
<p>"You’re a fucking saint." Daryl strides up to the car, giving it a good look. "It ain't too wedged up in there. If we can get it going back and forward a few times without getting it in the ditch we should be able to work it out."</p>
<p>Glenn rounds the front to the drivers door, and he's kidding if he thinks he's just going to sit there turning the wheel, even if Daryl could easy get this thing moving all by himself, but then the Chinaman just stands there, squinting down at the car like it's got some fucking national secret scratched into the paintwork.</p>
<p>"Hey Daryl? I think I know why they left it here."</p>
<p>When he gets his own look it's just writing, plain as day in chalk or something. "If you can read this go to house 2006." Arrow and all pointing right back where they've come.</p>
<p>Merle's been stuck doing nothing for all of five seconds. "Are we moving or what?"</p>
<p>"Note on the car. Says to go to a house up that way."</p>
<p>"And we give a shit because?"</p>
<p>"I don't know? Worth seeing if they got the keys at least? Make moving the car faster." He doesn't wait to listen to Merle's reply, just heads back to where he's left his own car door open. "Sides, if they already dead we can see what they got. Won't hurt none."</p>
<p>Merle, looks like he wants to disagree but can't be bothered. "It say where, baby brother? Who's there, or just come on up to the slaughter?"</p>
<p>"Just says back that way."</p>
<p>Glenn is already following him back up the road, out from under the shade of roadside trees and past what looks like the yard where their daddy raised them, rusted old shed and broken down wooden pallets, back to the houses. He wonders if they're going to be searching for long, but it's the first post box he spots, next to a cracked concrete drive and a dirtied up white water hydrant.</p>
<p>It’s not so strange to wait for rescue. Still. Something just don't sit right in his gut, and Daryl finds himself scanning the phone lines and tree tops, listening to the odd twittering of birds that'll be singing their little hearts out when the sun gets a little lower.</p>
<p>It's that sinking sun that finally gives him what he needs. It's rays glint, just the slightest bit, over a thin line strung just about ankle height across the drive, running from a signpost, round the post box and hydrant, off into the trees. He brings Glenn up short with a hand to his shoulder and points out the thread with the tip of his boot.</p>
<p>"What on earth?" Glenn's looking down at it struggling to put the pieces together when Merle comes up behind them both.</p>
<p>"Trip wire, rice cake. You didn't learn to build those back in the paddy fields?" Merle doesn't look up to see the look of weary disgust pass over Glenn's face, just walks a wide path along the wire, following it off with his eyes past a solid oak tree and to the next house along.</p>
<p>"Strikes me if I weren't sure of who was gonna be comin' to see me, I'd find a way so's that I could see them first. How's about we go find out what they're so worried about?"</p>
<p>Merle snaps his fingers and when they both turn to him he's all serious and is holding himself like the soldier he used to be. He points Daryl round the side nearest to him and beckons the kid to stay on his ass, and they creep round to check out the house.</p>
<p>It's not all that much to look at. It's painted completely white, with a double garage making up most of the first floor, and the second floor meeting the ground as the hill comes up to greet it. A wooden porch only twice as big as the welcome mat sits in the middle, leading to a dry-blood red door with one of those sunburst windows over it. Dinky little toy-house shutters, the same red, on each window.</p>
<p>Daryl slips round the closer side, down the driveway and under the tripwire, strung tight  to one of the windows. It's just slightly open, and looks like it's tied to a piece of plastic caught in a cloths peg.</p>
<p>He can smell the air passing through the house, scents falling out the window and dropping to the ground to skim under the hotter outside air. It smells like human and layers of cooked food.</p>
<p>He lets the world drop away and focuses on the sounds of the house, and it's quiet. Low, slow breath coming through at least one door and the slightest shift in wooden floorboards. Whoever it is, they know they've been discovered.</p>
<p>He peers back round the front corner of the house, and almost laughs. Merle’s traveled in a crouch through the thin undergrowth that lines that wall and is peaking in to some kind of basement window, but Glenn’s obviously knelt down and then dumped his ass between his feet. With the wrench held up in front of him he looks like he's bout to clobber some little critter.</p>
<p>He hisses at Merle and then gestures to the breathing, but Daryl isn't telling him anything new.</p>
<p>If they've already been discovered then not working with it ain't going to gain them nothing, but there's no rule saying they all have to give themselves away. He waves at Glenn until the kid gets the idea and scuttles to sit in Merle’s shadow, and then grabs a small stone from the ground. It looks like he's going to be making up a distraction again.</p>
<p>He walks out into the more open ground of the lawn and throws the pebble. It hits the window above the door with a satisfying click.</p>
<p>One second, then two, and he hears the steps coming forward and the bolt drawing back. The door swings out slowly and what he sees doesn't make sense for a moment, there's too much movement, but then it stills and a man is staring back from him from the back of the door.</p>
<p>It's a Mirror.</p>
<p>Dude hung a mirror on the back of the door and now they're looking at each other round the corner, and it strikes him that if he'd been in the mind to shoot as soon as he saw another person he'd have just shown his hand and gotten nothing for it.</p>
<p>He crouches down slightly lower without thinking but doesn't move past that. Part of him wants to turn, doesn't like being watched like this, but instead he takes the time to watch back.</p>
<p>The guy isn't all that much to look at. Not as quite old as Merle, or just not as hard worn, but he's sure as fuck not young. Bald head and skin sagging at his neck giving him the look of a turkey, collar with two buttons undone and cuffs turned up but still flat and ironed. He looks like just some old man settled in at home, but the trip wire makes him cautious. That and the solid black gun in his hand.</p>
<p>"You're not who I was expecting." The man gives him a rye little smile, but doesn't move from his spot.</p>
<p>"You waiting on the army?"</p>
<p>"That wouldn't go amiss, but no, I'm not waiting for the army." The hint of patronisation in his voice riles Daryl even more. "Where are your friends?"</p>
<p>"Just me, come up on your note and came to have a look."</p>
<p>The guy tilts his head just a bit. "You really think I'm going to fall for that? It's a pretty loud vehicle you've got back there, did you think I wasn't going to hear it going by? Now, I'm just asking that you all come out where we can see each other and we can try to have a civil conversation, how does that sound."</p>
<p>Daryl looks to where his brother is still scrabbling at the basement window, trying to get it open without making noise. "Don't know if my brother ever learned civil, but we can talk." He watches Glenn get cautiously to his feet, not sure yet if he's coming out too. "Hey, Merle! If you ain't got it by now you ain't gonna."</p>
<p>Merle stands, flips him the finger, and then puts the toe of his boot through the glass. "Paranoid old fart nailed it shut."</p>
<p>"What can I say, it stops people breaking in. Now, would you mind quietening down and coming inside before you wake up the whole neighborhood?"</p>
<p>He's tempted to reverse the truck back up the road, doesn't want to leave it just sitting there with all their stuff in, but that's just going to eat up more time and they've got maybe two and a half hours of daylight left as it is. Best to just play along for now.</p>
<p>He meets the others at the foot of the stairs and leads them up, through the front door and into a small kitchen and the cool breeze of air-con.</p>
<p>The man moves deeper in, slipping into the lounge before Daryl can get a proper baring on his back, and is facing him again by the time they get back in range. He's moving like Merle did, back when he got back from overseas, but he doesn't look afraid.</p>
<p>He doesn't fit into the house, though. And it strikes Daryl that this hasn't been his home for very long. The paint on the walls is house sellers beige, there's a two seater couch, a chair, and a coffee table but no magazines or books laid out on it, and the space that looks like it's been left open for a TV is empty. There's some bits on one of the shelves, a hard back, one photo and a hard wooden box that looks like a chess board but not, but none of the little bits of junk that you pick up when you spend time in a place.</p>
<p>There's also a black gym bag sitting by the front window, looking packed and ready to go.</p>
<p>Daryl's crawling out his fur here. In fact, he’s got the urge to run and not stop till he's out in the air again. This feels like a trap, and even if it's not a trap that's been laid for them, why take the risk. A noose doesn't ask who's neck it's supposed to brake.</p>
<p>Merle doesn't seem to be having the same problem. Or if he is he's hiding it a whole lot better. As soon as they're in the kitchen he's pulling open cupboards looking for food or god knows what. </p>
<p>Glenn isn't on guard, but that's probably more to do with not spotting the problem rather than an unending confidence in his ability to escape. He just takes off his backpack and heads strait in after the bald dude, standing awkwardly next to the couch like he's waiting for permission to sit.</p>
<p>"So, um..." Glenn starts, and then instantly fails to find something to say to end the tension.</p>
<p>“Howard,” Baldy says, turning back to him. He's got his hands by his sides, relaxed with an eyebrow raised, but he's still got his gun. And it doesn't escape Daryl's notice that he's turned to keep them all in front of him.</p>
<p>"Need you to move your car." Daryl's never been good at small talk. Not even before.</p>
<p>"That's doable." He nods and gives a bland smile. "Where are you guys heading off to in such a hurry."</p>
<p>"Seems like anyone's gonna be heading out the city. Surprised you haven't moved off."</p>
<p>Glenn shrugs. "I mean, we're kind of heading west to-"</p>
<p>"You got any beer in here, Grandpa?" Merle yells from where he's got his head in the guys fridge.</p>
<p>Howard keeps his gaze on Glenn for a few seconds, then turns back to where Merle is now examining a block of cheese. "Gee, in all the excitement I guess I forgot to go to the store."</p>
<p>Glenn's eyes are flicking between the two older men.</p>
<p>All four are caught in a tense silence. Daryl pushes down the urge to role out his shoulders and shake off like a dog, and instead he strides off to the corner of the room where the only pile of stuff is sitting, keeping his own side to the stranger and making the guy shift himself to stop them from surrounding him, moving closer to the window and what Daryl is now convinced is some kind of go bag. He really is paying attention to it, then.</p>
<p>He looks down at the picture. It's one of those traditional wedding photos, man and woman in front of a set of church doors, smiling to the camera while they hold each other close. It's the bald dude, with a pretty brunet.</p>
<p>"You waiting for her? That why you're still here?"</p>
<p>He crosses his arms over his chest, gun on top and still pointing about two feet to Daryl's left. "No, I'm not waiting for her." His face has what's most likely his first real feeling so far.</p>
<p>Daryl's just about run out of patience for all of this guy's mealy mouthed bullshit. "Then, no offense, but who the fuck are you waiting for? Ain't no reason to stay if you got your shit together. And you know what," he leans forward, gets close enough that the guy shifts his feet and grips his gun a little tighter, "I ain't letting you get in our way. You need to move your god dammed car or we gonna move it for you."</p>
<p>The guy watches him in silence. It goes on for long enough that Daryl thinks he's about to get shot, is gonna have to turn and rip this guy's throat out, but Glenn caves first.</p>
<p>“Go?”</p>
<p>He and Howard both look Glenn’s way, confused, but Glenn points to the shelf and a wry smile brightens turkey-man’s face.</p>
<p>"Should have realized you'd recognize that. Do you play?"</p>
<p>"No. I mean, my granddad tried to teach me and my sisters when we were little, but we kinda didn't have the attention span back then."</p>
<p>Howard looks back at him. "That chess board looking thing on the shelf. It's a Go board. Chinese strategy game."</p>
<p>"Thought you were Korean."</p>
<p>Glenn roles his eyes. "I am."</p>
<p>"Bring it over here," Howard says, holding out his hand like Daryl's gonna do whatever this guy says.</p>
<p>He does grab it, but that's just because he's curious.</p>
<p>The guy sits on the sofa, patting the other cushion so that Glenn sits beside him, opens up the board and pulls out two of those little drawstring bags. He reaches into one and pulls out a little squashed looking marble.</p>
<p>"It's like chess, white and black, but you don't move pieces. One person puts down a stone and then the other does, and you try to capture them."</p>
<p>"What do you get out of it?"</p>
<p>Howard frowns. "It's a game."</p>
<p>"I get that. I ain't stupid. Just," he tries to think it through, "do you bet on it? Do you learn shit?"</p>
<p>"I guess so. You learn to think ahead. To strategize."</p>
<p>Daryl just gnaws on his lip, watching Howard put the piece back in it's bag and the bags back in the case.</p>
<p>"Do you want dinner?"</p>
<p>"Dinner?" People don't make no fucking sense.</p>
<p>"Yeah, wise guy, dinner. That meal you have in the evening? Makes sense if we're heading out we might as well use up some of the food. And, you were right, there's no reason to stay."</p>
<p>Daryl stares at this man who's just decided he's going to be part of their group. Glenn looks just as confused.</p>
<p>"I could eat." Merle says from the kitchen. And how the hell is Merle okay with this?</p>
<p>The man claps his hands. "Well, that's settled then. I bought a chicken to roast before all of this happened, and it's just going to go to waist otherwise. No way to transport it." He heads to the fridge, leaving Daryl gaping at his back.</p>
<p>And now the guy's just pulling stuff out of the cupboards, a roasting pan and a load of knives that look like they cost more than anything Daryl's ever thought of putting a kitchen. Daryl meets eyes with Merle, who just shrugs and heads his way.</p>
<p>"The fuck?" is all he can think to say. "We just fine with this?"</p>
<p>"No skin off our noses. He can stick around while he's useful."</p>
<p>"Does anyone care what I think?" Glenn asks, looking a bit dejected. </p>
<p>"Take a guess, rice ball." Merle takes a look around him, then grins to himself. "You know what, kid, I wanna hear exactly what you think. Come on, let's talk."</p>
<p>He takes Glenn by the arm, and starts leading him towards the other side of the house, to what looks like the bedrooms.</p>
<p>Daryl turns away from the desperate look Glenn is giving him. Why the fuck is he pretending he has any control over any of this shit?</p>
<p>The old man is staring at him. "Are you just going to stand there or are you going to come over here and help?"</p>
<p>"What?"</p>
<p>The man doesn't grace that with an answer. He just starts laying out vegetables on a chopping board and raises an eyebrow.</p>
<p>It feels weird to be doing stuff that’s so domestic, especially with a stranger, but since nothing is making sense he might as well go along with it.</p>
<p>"So, should we be worried about those two?"</p>
<p>Daryl looks up and the dude gestures with his eyes to the bedroom door.</p>
<p>"Nah, Merle's my brother. He ain't too bad."</p>
<p>The man nods and starts making cuts in the bird, slitting it down each side of the spine then turning it's body to start again from the tail end.</p>
<p>"I was waiting to be picked up." The man doesn't lift his gaze. "Honestly didn't expect it to get this bad. I assumed, at worst, we'd be looking at 10%. It would be horrible, but survivable."</p>
<p>"Why would people come for you?"</p>
<p>The man smiles, but it looks like a grimace. "Because, something like this, I'm assuming that it came from somewhere. Someone." He places the animal's spine to one side and turns it over and laying it chest up. "And if someone made this, someone has to track down who did that."</p>
<p>"And that's you?"</p>
<p>He doesn't answer, just places one hand on top of the chicken and presses down in one clean thrust. It crunches and flattens out.</p>
<p>"There we go." A glance up at Daryl. "Makes the meat cook faster."</p>
<p>Daryl is still mulling over things and chopping carrots while the man rubs oil over the bird.</p>
<p>"You ain't told me why you decided to come with us. Didn't even invite you."</p>
<p>"Because, like you said, you'd have to be stupid to stay here." He dusts the bird with seasoning. "But if I was going to leave relative safety for what's out there I needed to go with a group and, to be brutally honest, you three will do until I find something better."</p>
<p>"Something better? You think we ain't gonna survive out there?"</p>
<p>"I think..." The man gives him a look over. "I think the three of you are going to fall apart at the seams. You've probably got all the survival skills you need, I'll grant you that, but you can't talk to people worth a damn, your brother strikes me as a risk taker, and the little Asian guy is going to follow you both off a cliff." He places the chicken on a tray. "And that's what I saw after less than ten minutes. Just imagine how much crazy I haven't noticed yet."</p>
<p>Daryl just looks at him, trying to find the lie in his face. Trying to see if there's something dark there. But there isn't, just a rueful tiredness.</p>
<p>"What the fuck good is talking to people going to do anyway? People ain't the danger no more."</p>
<p>"You really think that? I mean, I get that the dead may seem like the biggest threat. There's something primal in being lower down in the food chain, but people find a way to deal with that kind of thing. They always have. And after they've found a way to survive without being eaten, they start finding ways to get power over each other. They clime to the top of the pecking order or they fall to the bottom, and thinking you can opt out of society, that's the kind of thinking that got your ancestors called white trash."</p>
<p>"You think you're better than me?"</p>
<p>The man smiles. "In some ways. I just know that the system I learned how to survive in has a way of coming back. Maybe we'll both need to figure out each others worlds to get through it."</p>
<p>It makes a fucked up kind of sense, but that's all the worse. He stares down at all his little bits of veg, cut up in whatever chunks looked okay because the last time he did this was with his mama. He grabs the knife to stick it down in the wooden block.</p>
<p>"Fuck you."</p>
<p>He storms off to find his brother. He's been able to hear them murmuring in the background, but blocking out Merle when the guy's run off to a bedroom is kind of second nature by now, and when he opens the door he remembers why.</p>
<p>Merle has Glenn backed up against one of the walls, lips smashed together and hands lifting the kids T-shirt to get at the skin underneath.</p>
<p>Daryl slams the door closed.</p>
<p>His brother gives him a quick look, then runs his tongue up the kids neck. One hand slips lower to massage Glenn's crotch, and the younger man whimpers.</p>
<p>"You finished playing with the old fag? Want to have a go with this one instead?"</p>
<p>He punches Merle in the side of the head.</p>
<p>They're both surprised for a second. It wasn't that hard a hit, he didn't even plan it, but Merle leaps on him just as well, pushing him up the wall same as he had the Asian, hands fisted in the front of his top and hot breath on his face.</p>
<p>"The fuck you playing at, boy? You want to be the big bad boss? Want to fight me for it? Huh?"</p>
<p>"Fuck you, Merle!" He shoves his brother away and they hold each other at arms length, both ready to throw a punch. "I need you not to be doing that here. Once we get set up for the night it don't matter as much, but we need this guy to keep going along until we've gotten out of here."</p>
<p>Merle jolts him back but backs off. "You think it really matters? He gets all bent out of shape we just take what we want. What's he gonna do about it?"</p>
<p>'He won't talk to me,' is what some part of him wants to say, but that's a stupid idea. Merle and this guy are going to butt heads sooner rather than later, but Daryl can't get that idea out of his head. The idea that they aren't really ready for this and they need to be. That whoever this man is can show him at least a glimpse of that.</p>
<p>Instead he says, "Let's just do this the easy way for once. At least till we've eaten his food."</p>
<p>"Pussy." But Merle doesn't do anything, just shoulders past, back to the other room, leaving him with Glenn.</p>
<p>He goes to touch the kid's face but he flinches away.</p>
<p>"You hurt?"</p>
<p>"No? I mean, he didn't hit me or anything, but they guy's not really gentle."</p>
<p>"Yeah." He sighs. "You don't know the half of it."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This chapter took ages because I'm really starting to judge my work. There are so many things that I would change if I hadn't already posted chapters, and that left me struggling to continue writing. I got going again by deciding that this is a first draft, one that I'm just posting for now till I can go back and make it better so that I don't just leave a stub of a story.</p>
<p>I'm also going to add a whole load of new characters and communities because I'm not sure I can write this without them. It's always going to be focused on the Dixon's and Glenn, with some story lines for the others from the show to develop them, but I don't want to get caught in the trap of just rewriting the TV show. I've seen the start of that with Daryl as a child or Glenn as a girl and it's interesting but not what I'm aiming for.</p>
<p>I just wanted to say sorry for the delay and that I hope you'd like to continue with me in the direction I'm headed.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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